What’s happening to Mystic?
Over the past few years I have been part of many conversations about preserving DSRV Mystic. The conversations began almost from the moment the vehicle arrived in Keyport, and staff has continuously tried to acquire funding for its preservation since.
This past year, the Naval Undersea Museum Foundation decided to look into working with us on this project, as it seemed the funding was not going to come from the Navy. A Mystic Working Group was formed as an advisory group to ensure the project would include all the necessary technical components, and to serve as a liaison between the Foundation as the fundraising entity and the museum as the project overseer. This group consisted of Merle Vogel, Mike Smith, Dick Taylor, and Floyd Crow, all former DSRV crewmembers. We reviewed the Statement of Work (SOW) as prepared, and Mike Smith contacted several specialists he knew to assess the project as well. In the end, we were confident with the project, and the Foundation was looking into a potential crowd-funded project to preserve Mystic.
Just as we really began to look into that project, the museum closed due to the pandemic, and we had to put the project on hold. Fortunately for us, there was sweep-up money at the end of the fiscal year, made available to us for the Mystic project. We awarded the contract at the end of September, and the contractors are already working on building the enclosure around Mystic at the time of writing. Over the coming months, they will sand down the delaminated fiberglass and repair it to the vehicle’s original shape. They will then work to remediate the corrosion on the vehicle, replace missing fasteners and bolts, install protection from animal intrusion, and, finally, paint the vehicle matching its original colors to add UV protection.
The project is an extensive one, a mixture of preservation and restoration, but it is extremely important to invest in the preservation of outdoor vehicles to ensure they stay with us to tell their stories. Being outdoors increases the risk to the artifact by subjecting it to the elements, be it wind, rain, pollution, or wildfire smoke. As Mystic doesn’t fit inside the building where we can protect it from those environmental conditions, we’re excited that this project is finally realized, and that it can get the extra care it deserves! –Beth Sanders, Collections Manager